AI worm debate: Saxe argues agents could hide in $100B inference stream, Halvar pushes back on cost and capability limits
joshua_saxe · x · 2026-09-14
Security researcher Joshua Saxe rebuts Halvar Flake's skepticism about AI worms: the worm wouldn't need to generate novel exploits at first, and could spread via social engineering, known exploits, and credential stuffing before accumulating resources. He notes 100bn+ dollars are spent on inference compute today, so malicious agents could plausibly hide in that traffic. Halvar counters that stolen keys would quickly hit cost limits and anomaly detection, good 0days cost thousands of dollars, and current models are empirically bad at administering even small machine fleets.
Related event: Researcher Argues Self-Replicating AI Botnets Are Feasible Today(6 posts)→
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